Code Geass: Boukoku no Akito – 01
Leila-“Dear diary, I hope no one makes fun of my cinnamon bun hair clips…”
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Ooooh Code Geass, whenever I hear your name my mind jumps right to the very first opening of season one! You know the one right? Colors by Flow which is freaking awesome, but we’re here to talk about a new movie series called Code Geass Boukoku no Akito and it follows the timeline of the year 2017, the gap between R1 and R2, when Lelouch’s memories were erased. |
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Amidst all of the fall season excitement, I almost missed that this even came out. …So I’m very grateful to Fosh for reminding me about it. While we don’t have the fabulous Lagrange mecha to talk about anymore, at least we’ll always have Nightmare frames and CLAMP character designs. …Right? |
In between R1 and R2…
…The clothes are so freaking tight…
Kara // So one thing I liked about this was that it wasn’t trying to be a Code Geass 1.5 (…yet). It threw us outside of Area 11 and gave us a familiar world from a completely new point of view with its European setting. Aside from the preview, they didn’t even try to incorporate the main CG characters in. For this first episode, I liked the fact they worked on establishing new characters, allowing us to focus on them instead of distracting us with the old ones. I know for sure that if they had even shown us a side character like Milly, I would have cared about what she said and did more than anything Akito or Leila did. Another thing I liked was the depth of the characters. Akito is pretty well established in his place in the world, yet we know nothing about his past. Who is he? They revealed just enough to make me care about his character and yet still left me guessing as to who he is. This show would have been completely different if we had just followed a montage of his childhood to get to this point.
Chicks dig giant robots!
Commander-“Aw crap your machine looks cooler than mine!” Akito-“Prepare to taste my metal fist!”
Akito-“I could be at home watching anime, but I am stuck fighting in my giant robot.”
Fosh // No seriously girl’s love them, right? At least that is what this amazing song told me! So, I am here to talk about the various mecha and the mechanical design team for this OAV series, but I am only familiar with a few of the series they worked on. We should start off with Akira Yasuda, Kenji Teraoka, Takashi Miyamoto and finally Takumi Sakura! Together all of them have worked on Code Geass collectively and a few of them have done various stuff for Mouretsu Pirates, Horizon in the middle of nowhere, Aquarion, lots of Gundam stuff, Ghost in the Shell and recently Accel World just to name a few and damn is that list impressive! About the machines in this OAV: for starters the main character uses a special Knightmare frame nicknamed Alexander and it looks totally badass to me! However, Akito does fight a lot of the random EU soldiers who pilot the usual Sutherland Knightmare aka the basic troop type along with a special “commander” version called a Gloucester, which has additional weapons like swords and they usually have fancy capes! Why? Because they add extra style of course…just kidding it really makes them an easier target on the battlefield.
So there you have it! A quick rundown of the machines found in this first OAV episode, but Code Geass in general is filled with some of the best looking mecha of all time like the Shinkiro, Gawain, Guren S.E.I.T.E.N and who could ever forget the Lancelot Albion? So are there any machines that you like from Code Geass universe or is your first real experience seeing them? Aside from the super cool looking robots blowing up there really wasn’t anything different to show up other than the new claw like machine during final showdown with Ryo Sayama’s Knightmare Frame.
Cool dudes and sexy ladies
Akito-“Everyone else looks strange…” Lelia-“They have the Clamp character design virus.”
Lelia-“Oh no I totally left the driver behind! Oh well I can buy another one right?”
Fosh // I suppose we should talk about our two main characters with Akito Hyuuga and Leila Malcal these two are quite cool in certain ways, but I enjoyed how both of them interacted together even though they have the whole important person/bodyguard set up going on to bring them together and damn I think Leila’s character design is quite sexy along with that fancy outfit of hers… And what about our main male? What makes him so awesome? For starters he is a really impressive mecha pilot as we saw at the start and ending of this first movie. However, Akito can kick your ass without even using a giant robot! Seriously just give that dude a high powered gun and he will take anyone out with no issues at all. As far as designs go you can always expect Clamp to all out for the special characters, but there are lots of random background people walking around that looked completely horrible! Just take a look at that fat dude during the big party who talked to Leila? What…the…hell…was that thing!? I swear it looked like a freakish troll or something, but Clamp is known for having characters with spaghetti noodle arms and legs, but anyway I am sure we all have known that right for a long time.
Kara // I like these characters already. Why do I like them? Let’s go into details. One: Leila’s design is awesome (keep in mind that I’m a CLAMPtard and therefore, my opinion is absolutely full of bias). …Also, I like uniforms. I wasn’t so much into the damsel in distress part of the movie with her asshat of a brother, but what impressed me was that she could actually hold her own in a fight without needing Akito. Stopping a sword with your bare hands is pretty badass in my books, though Code Geass has always been pretty good at making its female leads actually capable. …Or at least Kallen and C.C. were. I guess I like Leila because she reminds me of C.C. (even personality wise a bit) and I can’t wait to to see them interact. …If they haven’t already since the ED shows a young girl who kind of looks like Leila and someone dressed like C.C. was in the preview together. Anyways, enough about Leila. Akito is pretty cool as well and as a non-mecha fan, I can truthfully say that I enjoyed the hell out of the fight that happened at the beginning. If glowing red eyes have taught me anything in this show, I’m pretty sure that Akito is under some sort of Geass. What, how and why? I have absolutely no idea. It adds that extra layer of interest to his character though. Even the three from the end were interesting. I always love plot devices where two or more who just tried to kill one another need to work together for whatever reason.
A small thing I picked up from this episode was the fact that the random soldier A couldn’t pick up that Akito was Japanese just from sight. Sure, there are more types of Asian then just Japanese, but… how the hell do these characters tell one ethnicity from the other? Everyone is tall, skinny, relatively pale and they all have anime eyes. As a viewer, how am I supposed to realize that those people with brown hair are European, but Ryou (who also has brownish hair) is Japanese? Sure, they told us, but if they didn’t, I sure as hell wouldn’t have know. It’s not even that big of an issue for me, but I guess I’m just curious if the Geass world even has ethnicities looking different from one another. Especially since racism is such a huge part of the series.
Awesome Geass powers!
Akito-“Who else wants their ass kicked?!” Soldier-“Oh god please pick me! Pick me!
Xin-“You really need a haircut bro.” Random guy-“Thanks for the advice! I shall do it myself.”
Kara // Speculation time! Is Akito’s Geass influence similar to Suzaku’s in some way? He said he’s fighting to die, so maybe he was commanded to live no matter what and hopes to die in battle (assuming whatever hit him is the same type as Lelouch’s)? Or maybe there are circumstances like “live until there’s world peace”. …Wouldn’t it be crazy if it was Lelouch that made him that way (somehow)? What do you think? Also, we know that Xin has a Geass, but does Leila? If her and C.C. actually did meet in the past at some point (can C.C. give the Geass to more than one person at a time? I forget)… Either that or I’m just reading way too much into the ED. The people behind this sure knew how to set up an intriguing set of characters. Anyways, I’m sure we’ll find out about that later.
Fosh // I agree Kara! I think Akito’s is under the same type of Geass like Suzaku because like you said his eyes were totally glowing during his first battle scene, which tells me he is either under a spell or his power has yet to be officially revealed to us? At least we know that Shin Hyuuga Shaing is rocking some crazy Lelouch like power after he made that other guy kill himself; however I can only assume that he is the official bad guy of this short series? Then again we all know how those ideas work towards assuming certain characters are main villains *cough* Rinne no Lagrange *cough* with any anime we all know an official “main” villain can pop up at any moment just to cause trouble for everyone! At least there are no Moid’s to worry about this time around.
Since this series takes place during the short gap where Lelouch lost his memories from season one, we were pretty much left with a huge mystery to think about, but I really hope Boukoku can clear the air about what happened during that time and it sort of explains why we saw a shot of Suzaku and C.C. in the preview because the official events of the second season have not taken place yet.
Extra Geass fun
Dude-“Hey kid I like your face…” Akito-“Hhmmm? Come closer I didn’t quite hear you.”
Akito-“You smell good…I think I will eat your ear.” Dude-“OH CRAP! HELP!”
This is Gammon‘s new gig until season three of Phi brain rolls around.
Yuri all up in your Code Geass universe.
End thoughts
This certainly was an interesting take on the Code Geass universe! I mean the action was amazing even though most of the actual combat was done with a mix of CGI and normal animation; however it was some great CGI none the less. I kind of wish this was an actual movie or a possible twelve episode series instead of four OAV “episodes” because it just feels really short to me, but did you like it or were you left wanting more like me? Was anyone freaking out like I was over the PREVIEW? Oh my god! The PREVIEW WAS THE BEST PART of this episode because we got to see some familiar characters like C.C. and Suzaku? I just can’t wait for the next part and I wonder who else will suddenly pop up for some random screen time? Kallen and the rest of the Black Knights possibly? Anyway stay tuned to Metanorn for more Code Geass Boukoku no Akito!
I loved every minute of this. Not only did this new spin off of Code Geass have a great setup, but I think I like this cast better than the old one (…mostly because I watched the first two Code Geass seasons when I was in my harem hating phase). The ‘evil’ Britannians of this season seem like good enough people to be interesting opposition (for the most part) and even that Xin seems to have a deeper reason for killing off his own side. …In fact, he reminds me a lot of Lelouch since that flashback kind of looked like what happened with his mother and what screwed over his childhood. Not to mention that the entire scene reminded me of the Clovis one (yay parallels). …Plus the whole Geass thing. Anyways, there was just so much here and it looks like there’s so much to come! Especially since C.C. and Suzaku seem to be in the next OAV in this series! I’m super excited!!
Preview
C.C. – “I could go for some food right about now. You know the Pizza Hut hotline?!”
C.C. lives and Akito fights with his new team mates…
About Tag Team
We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.
POWUH: 700-799 and Horror Expert with 701 comments
This was between 1 and 2? It’s been such a long time since I watched Geass I can’t even remember the timeline, so thanks for explaining that! ´▽｀ lol Fosh that’s so true about the background character designs, they freaked me out! Though the variety was nice, on the bright side they didn’t all look completely generic.
About the Geass, I was thinking along those lines as well Kara, that maybe the reason Akito has such a high survival rate is because his Geass stops him from dying. That’s an interesting point about Lelouch being involved, I didn’t even think of that! That would be quite the twist.
I agree with both of you that Akito and Leila are awesome! I’m not a big fan of that trio of characters that came along towards the end though, but I’m sure they’ll grow on me. Ayano is very mysterious and she seems like she’s hiding some secrets.
Anyway, thanks for covering this Fosh and Kara! I’ve forgotten so many details about the Geass universe so I needed something like this to get me back up to speed.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Yep! That bit of news was a surprise for me as well Hawte! I was like wait a minute…why…are Suzaku and C.C. hanging around?! OH DERP This must be between both seasons? I should thank Kyokai she refreshed me on a few things!
LOL Those background characters are hilarious to look at because they are just basically shapes combined together it makes me laugh <3 GG Clamp! At least the main characters look great right?
The trio will take some time to get used to I am sure...
Welcome! Always a pleasure to chat about Code Geass! I wish we got a proper 13 episode series instead of this ah well we can dream right? If Eureka Seven Ao can get made why not more Code Geass? Then again that series had two twenty four episode seasons, but still I WANT MORE!
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
If I hadn’t done my research about Akito for last season’s preview, I wouldn’t know about this being R1 and R2 myself. xD
Though, going in not expecting much, I ended up liking this more than I ever thought I would. I’m glad of the new setting of Europe rather than Area11 and really like to know what’s going down with Akito as he seems to have some interesting skeletons in his closet. Also, guys, Leila voiced by my ever favourite MAAYA SAKAMOTO (HNNG), while Miyu Irino did an awesome job as Akito. This was a good watch.
POWUH: 600-699 with 691 comments
i was thinking…what’s with code geass and cats
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
I know right? I think Clamp loves them a lot or the animation team loves to draw them?
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 95 comments
I think that C.C can give geass to multiple people. She gave
one to Mao remember.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Ahhhh yeah that is very true! So C.C. gets around eh? ;P
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Ah, right. So I guess even if Lelouch failed, someone else can take over.
POWUH: 500-599 with 543 comments
I’m pleased with this OVA so far. I’m glad you guys like Leila and Akito as well. I think they make a good pair- Leila has the military smarts (yay!) as well as dat uniform, and Akito has his crazy kill-everyone-at-once Geass or something. He did keep shouting “DIE!” at people, so I think there’s something up with that beyond what was mentioned right at the end of the OVA.
I’m also interested in the aspect of racism that they’re dealing with here. It’s not just “let’s get Japan out of this Britannia,” it’s let’s actually deal with the fact that there would be racism, and it would be relevant to the characters.
As for the character designs, they seemed less CLAMP than CLAMP. Legs seems shorter. Not to mention the three creep brothers. I doubt they’ll do much to Leila, but they’re always there to provide some reasoning of why Leila is always trying hard, doing her best. Leila’s probably felt trapped her entire life because of the parents’ decision. I mean, if you grew up with that creepy brother, it would be hard to do anything about it.
I’m also glad that this is after Zero has been stopped, and before Lelouch starts up again. That year was entirely forgotten, as if nothing really happened. And because of that, Lelouch is conveniently out of the way, and CC can’t be in Japan because she has to make her grand entrance in episode 1 with that airship. So she could totally be in Europe or something. If Akito has a Geass, and Leila gains one, it could be interesting to see a show where 3 characters have them.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Awesome! Yeah this OVA was a surprise for me I mean come on more Code Geass? How could I not watch something like that? As for Akito yeah I think he is under some geass just like Suzaku, but can you imagine those two fighting? Wow…who would win? JK I think we obviously know that answer xD
LOLOLOL Clamp designs! Yeah as far as the main characters go they are nice and less “clamp-ish” like you said because their arms and legs are not loongggggggg; however background people…yeah…they are freakish looking O_O
Agreed I am glad we are getting a bridge from s1 and s2 for the geass universe! So that is good <3
POWUH: 500-599 with 543 comments
Well, Suzaku has the “don’t die!” Geass on him in the end of R2, so if Akito vs Suzaku happens then… geez, Akito won’t do very well. But if we’re with R1 Suzaku who still hasn’t completely realized everything about life, Akito has a good shot at it.
LOL NO Suzaku wins no matter what. <3
Well the legs also have a bit more muscle! Like Leila's curve a little bit. As if they aren't just rectangle bones!
Well, the fat guy reminds me of the eldest Prince in the scene where Lelouch goes and sits on the throne and is all like "I win" and Suzaku jumps out and becomes the Zero Knight. That Prince was rather… chubby. And old. So maybe they recycled him.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
hahah yeah you are right about that! Most of us already know what happens to Suzaku at the end, but if Akito ever fights him I think he would get owned fast…and yeah my money would be on Suzaku at this point.
Yeah…fat…dudes in anime get no love just look at a recent series that just wrapped up! Seriously can any animation studio get it right? I like to think of them as just a blob of shapes xD
POWUH: 500-599 with 543 comments
I don’t think anyone really wants a super chubby character. Unless it was plot-related. (Even then, what plot would appeal to enough people?) But there is Daru from Steins;Gate. He is an exception.
POWUH: 400-499 with 410 comments
Oh this is happening during the silence between R1 and R2? I never expected C.C and Suzaku to appear since this is happening in EU.
I love Akito because he can be so calm and keep that poker face up all the time (expect for the part when he was fighting). And that SMIRK!!! THAT SMIRK is definitely attractive. Plus, who wouldn’t like a character that is able to take out a Knightmare with only a grenade launcher?
About the geass that was used on him, my guess is that it’s something like Suzaku (like Kara mentioned) but the difference is that the order that was given to him was to kill, therefore the madness early in the episode.
And that Knightmare Akito used early in the episode, that machine is way too overpowered. All that fast and smooth movements is crazy. It also took out a whole squad with only a melee weapon? Seriously?
As a big fan of Code Geass, I really enjoyed this new series. I wish this was a full cour series instead of a OVA…
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Yep! That it is Toori-chan and I know right? I was not expecting to see those two characters pop up in this OVA, but damn it was amazing! I watched that part over and over again.
Ahahah Yes! Akito is quite the badass and those evil smirks were AMAAZINGGG I was like DAMN….that was so cool xD
Yeah I think you are onto something right there I guess you could call it a blood lust type of power? The more he kills the more “unstoppable” he becomes or something cheesy like that I know Suzaku’s was “LIVE ON!” which gives him a huge edge against anyone.
Yep I want a full series rather than an OVA…ah well I will continue holding out for a 3rd season of Code Geass.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
OMG I still haven’t watched it. Shoot me. Shoot me now ! How could I forget about CG????? TT^TT
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Ahahahah no problem! Go watch! nao!
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
More CG! Yes! I AM LADY!
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
great news! Watch it you will have fun~
POWUH: 400-499 with 489 comments
YES new code geass. About time 2
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Agreed! Now we just have to wait for the 2nd one to finally come out…
POWUH: iLurker with 7 comments
Exciting! I Wonder what will Kururugi do. When is the 2nd episode?
POWUH: Occasional (51-75) with 71 comments
lol Sunrise re-using character types. >_> was anyone else reminded of Heero? not that I mind, I think it’s another fantastic job by Sunrise but will probably be more dark than CG. I hope they have more CG related stuff after this 4 ep OVA. (maybe more into the origins of Geass? 0.o Tower of Babel? lol they probably would integrate some sort of Japanocentrism as well.)
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Ahaha yeah I really want another series rather than a 4 part OVA…and yeah there was a few scenes that reminded me of Heero lololol
POWUH: 600-699 with 691 comments
the animation is nice, but the setting is so horrible, what future would this have in the actual plot?
by the way cinnamon hair clips are awesome…*0*
and
dosen’t akito reminds you of lelouch’s face?besides the fact that he seems mental some times like lelouch does when when he starts laughing in the midlle of the battles
and
i didin’t really like the whole lot of geass focus
i liked better when only few or just lelouch had it(one is enough).
and
i’m kinda antagonized abut the kamikaze deal as well. worse was the ghost talk(copy much) and the I’VE DIED BEFORE
and
the good thing that partially saves is…awesome mecha fight…at least there’s akito’s smirk from hell THAT was badass and funny( i don’t really know why but evil characters with evil smirks are funny to me…maybe i’m evil too)
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
mmmmm cinnamon hair clips…so good…
Yeah Akito has a lot of similar facial reactions like Lelouch doesn’t he? Especially when Akito is like RAAWRRR FIGHT ME NOW!
Yeah I suppose it was fun with only one overpowered Geass user, but I always love fights with super powers or odd special abilities! I guess the shounen lover in me loves it xD
Mecha fight was awesome I wish the quality of the file was better because it was so dark you really couldn’t see much of the actual fighting…ah well maybe I can find some blueray stuffs?
POWUH: 500-599 with 543 comments
I think that having a few different geass-es is interesting, since we’ve seen what happens with just 1 geass around. This way we can get an idea of what happens when multiple clash. We kind of had that in the Lelouch-Code Geass, but it wasn’t very major.
Akito’s smirk is indeed great. Whoever thought of it deserves a medal for smirk greatness.
POWUH: 600-699 with 691 comments
you know… I watched again…and again, and i still can’t understand what in kyuubi no yoko’s name is Xin’s power…unless he’s the xing-ling fake version of lelouch with the power of the chess-king
and
i think Xin and Akito are brothers and Xin put the “be apropiate and kill everyone with a kick-ass smirk” geass order/power/brainwash in him
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
I was thinking they were related as well… Though more because their hair colours kind of match up.
POWUH: 600-699 and Wingman with 655 comments
my god…..its code geass
sure ill watch it because it is code geass
but i wont be expecting much from it because it is code geass
dang bro im not falling for your tricks again like i did for code geass R2